Brooklyn Helps Reunite Families

August 9, 2018

Thanks to the generosity of donors, we have deployed $50,000 from our Immigrant Rights Fund to address the ongoing national emergency of immigrant families separated and detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Five organizations are each receiving $10,000 Immediate Response grants to help provide critical legal representation and support services for thenearly 250 separated childrenrelocated to New York City.

These funds are having an immediate impact:

Just two weeks ago, Safe Passage Project brought a suit in Federal court to protect nine separated children whom the government sought to move against their wishes, without consultation with their attorneys or parents. The children—as young as 5 years old—had expressly stated they did not wish to be moved.

Safe Passage succeeded in halting the government’s orders, and its team is now working on plans for family reunification and further representation.

“This grant truly can be the difference between a child being moved against their wishes, returned to the very danger they fled, and being released and re-unified with family in pursuit of safety and stability here in the United States.”

Four additional grants are supporting the efforts of KIND, The Door, Central American Legal Assistance, and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York. Funding will advance the reunification process, which includes tracking down parents who have been detained, deported to their country of origin, or are out on bond. As families are reunified, funding will provide legal defense, social services, and wraparound case management support.

Our Immediate Response grants are designed for emergencies like these, providing quick and simplified funding turnaround. Instead of a traditional grant application process, organizations can request a conversation with our team about their current needs, which lightens administrative burden and ensures that they can focus their time and resources on addressing these urgent challenges. It also helps our donors to know that their donations are being used efficiently and effectively when they’re needed most.

“We are so impressed by how quickly your team responded to the current crisis. We needed your support and you responded!”

– Eve Stotland, Esq., Director, Legal Services Center, The Door

Our Immigrant Rights Fund was created by Foundation donors in the weeks after the 2016 election to provide both immediate and long-term support for organizations working on the frontlines of the immigrant rights crisis in Brooklyn’s communities.

To date, we have raised close to our original goal of $1 million, and we have made nearly $650,000 in grants to 40+ immigrant serving groups across the borough. We have now doubled our goal to $2 million because the crisis shows no sign of slowing.

Cecilia Clarke

President & CEO

“This grant truly can be the difference between a child being moved against their wishes, returned to the very danger they fled, and being released and re-unified with family in pursuit of safety and stability here in the United States.”
- Gui Stampur, Deputy Executive Director and Co-founder, Safe Passage Project

Immigrant Rights Fund to address the ongoing national emergency of immigrant families separated and detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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